I met Melissa Varnavas when she came to work at the Beverly Citizen newspaper back in the late 1990s. She became a great friend, joining the North Shore Poets’ Forum and sharing with fellow Forum members much that she was learning in her Master of Fine Arts program.

She then reached out to others in the poetry community of the North Shore, including the Tin Box Poets and the Salem Writers Group. She was full of joy and information and talent. She died much too soon, in August 2022, from cancer, at the very young age of 48.

With her husband Chris Terrell and Tin Box poets Javy Awan and Margaret Eckman, I helped select some of her marvelous poems for a book that will be off to the printer soon. We know her family, friends, fellow poets and others she met through the years will enjoy this upcoming book of Melissa’s poems. Until that is available, however, I hope the attached interview with Reach Arts member Agatha Morrell, with remind you of how charming, talented and wonderful she was.